Religion is difficult to describe, but for this article, it will be used interchangeably with “belief in, or worship of god”, “a collection of beliefs”, “an order of existence”, or “a cultural system.”

US laws prevent the government from meddling or interfering with any religious organization, institution, or denomination. Perhaps due to this right of an individual to his own religion in the US, there has grown a great diversity of religious beliefs and practices. There is a wide assortment of religion in this country, among which are:

In a brief summary, 83% are Christians, 4% are non-Christian (Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, etc.), and 13% have no religion (atheists, agnostic) in the US. This percentile is different, if we compare it with the whole world, where 52% are non-Christian, roughly 33% are Christian, and about 15% have no religion.

Breaking the numbers down further, polls show that 53% of Americans are Protestants, 22% are Catholics, and 8% others, like Mormon or Jehovah’s Witnesses and Seventh Day Adventists.

Most American Protestants (a third of them) are unaffiliated; they are Protestants, but they don’t belong to a certain denomination. The next big group calls themselves Baptists or Southern Baptists. The rest of the other denominations are very small in size.

Almost half of black Americans belong to the Baptist religion, some 15% are non-denominational and 8% are Methodist. Most blacks are Christian, with only 3% with no religion.

With the whites, Catholics and nonaffiliated Protestants have almost the same percentage and 13% are Baptists. Thirteen percent of them have no religion or are atheist or agnostic.

It is noteworthy to see the trend shows that in the US, the number of Christians is declining and the number of adults with no religion is growing. This trend is taking place not only in some states but nationwide. The drop in the number of Christians is most obvious among young adults, but it is also true among Americans of various ages.

Nonetheless, the US remains as the country where you will find more Christians than any country in the world, and the mainstream Americans still belong to the Christian faith.

A greater part of Americans claim that religion plays a very vital role in their lives, a percentage that is rare among developed countries.